SUMTER, S.C. — Helping kids while honoring a fallen hero is the purpose behind a book drive happening in Sumter right now. Cpl. Andrew Gillette worked for the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office before he was shot and killed in the line of duty in 2020. Now, his wife is honoring his memory by sharing his love of reading with children.
Local kids that come to the Sumter Boys & Girls Club and will soon get access to a new library thanks to a book drive started by Marie Gillette.
“I haven’t really been able to do much to memorialize Andrew,” Gillette says about her husband. “Right after he died COVID kicked in within a month and so there was that and then there was a period of grief.”
Gillette tells me a man shot at her husband when he was at a property serving an eviction order. Gillette says he returned fire and ultimately died from his injuries.
Now, she’s getting the chance to honor her husband by hosting a book drive in his honor.
“I've always wanted to memorialize him because he was a hero. And he loved this community. It wasn't his home community, but he adopted it. And so he loved this community and he was a servant to this community and I know that I don't want to forget him,” Gillette explains, highlighting her husband’s influence on their son John Curtis. “I don't want them to forget him for his son’s sake or for his contributions. So I think now was the perfect time where I was able to move forward and be just in the memories and able to memorialize him without being overcome with emotion.”
Gillette tells me she remembers her husband not only as a servant, but as someone who loved reading.
“Andrew read early on since he was child. His mom always kind of instilled that in him, and then she went back to school and got her degree to be a children's librarian,” Gillette explains about Andrew’s mother, Cathy. “So she pushed that even more.”
“They would sit and read with them. We would sit and read with them. And it just, you know…a sweet, old fashioned kind of kid. He had, oh, God, I don't know how many relatives in the family — grandfather, great grandfather, uncle, cousin — all in law enforcement in the family and he just worshiped them,” Cathy recalls. “He was a sweet kid and he was, kind of was an old soul in some ways, if you know what I mean.”
“I think it's great that these books are being given to the club in honor of him,” Sumter Boys & Girls Club Site Coordinator Crystal Brown shares. “We have a reading program, where everyday after their homework, they each have to read a book to us and it helps them with their reading. And so the books will come in…they will be very handy for us because we've read almost every book we have.
Brown tells me in her time with the club, she’s seen practice pay off, helping the children improve their grades in school the more they read.
“Kids come in here that don't know him or never met his family, they can read a book, you know further their education so they can be successful,” Trevor Brown, Andrew’s friend, tells me. “I think that's the most important thing we take from this, that we’re giving these kids opportunity to have a chance in society.”
Trevor says he first met Cpl. Gillette when Andrew was serving in the military at Shaw Air Force Base. Years later, the two worked together at the Sheriff’s Office.
“I was on duty that day when it…when I heard it on the radio. Just that whole day was just, you know, like one of the worst days you’ll ever have in your life,” Trevor remembers about his friend, who he nicknamed ‘Razor.’ “It’s your friend, your co-worker is going to not come home to their family. So you’re worried about his family, his wife, his kids, how they're going to make it.”
But now, Trevor tells me he’s happy Gillette's family is carrying on his legacy through making reading accessible.
“We all need it. Not just here in Sumter, but every community. Columbia, Florence, or whatever,” Trevor explains. “We’ve just got to take time to look out for these kids because we’re losing them so much these days.”
As for Gillette, she says she's "forever grateful" for the community's support and donations to the book drive.
If you’d like to donate books or gifts for the drive, you can visit this Amazon registry to make a purchase online. You can also drop off donations in-person at the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.